How To Successfully Handle Homework For Your Child

As summer vacations come to an end and school commences parents are back on their light night homework finishing up routine. Homework is used as a tool to give parents a chance to see what is being taught and learned in school. Additionally, it teaches students how to take responsibility for their part in the educational process and work independently.

Before we guide you with some homework managing tips, let’s look at 4 major types of homework.

Not all homework is equal! This means some homework tasks require more time whereas some require less time. It’s very critical to identify the type of homework your child’s teacher has assigned.

1. Practice Homework: Just like it sounds, this type of homework is designed to help your student learn and remember key concepts taught in the classroom on that respective day.
E.g: A teacher taught them addition and subtraction in the classroom today and gave 5 sums of each category for homework.

2. Preparation Homework: This homework is inclusive of topics/concepts not taught in the classroom yet. So these homework assignments are designed to introduce your child to the content/topic that will help them acquire concepts taught later on in class.
E.g: The class teacher wants to introduce parts of a flower in tomorrow’s learning session and for homework asks the children to get a printout of a diagram where the different parts of the flower are identified. This will help students to understand the base of tomorrow’s learning session.

3. Extension Homework: In this type of homework students are asked to apply their skills to other content or a special project that is usually assigned over a period of time.
E.g: The teacher taught the students how to answer comprehension questions in the English language session. She now assigns them 5 comprehensions with questions to be done in a span of 1 month.

4. Integration Homework: This homework is similar to extension, but often results in a class presentation or event like a science fair.
E.g: The environment studies teacher taught them about how waste management is performed. She asked the students to brainstorm and figure out newer better ways of waste management.

Though homework from school has its own pros and cons. Unfortunately, homework can also cause unnecessary frustration, prevent students from participating in extracurricular activities and lead to poor self-esteem. These negative emotions towards homework can be prevented by making homework an important priority for your family and trying out these 10 helpful homework tips:

1. Limit Distractions: we recommend you create a homework conducive environment for your child which is away from the T.V. and other places where there could be distractions such as pets, people coming and going and loud noises.

2. Provide Tools: As a parent, you must ensure the materials your child may need for successful homework completion are readily available. It’s helpful to keep an ample number of pencils, pens around, A dictionary, textbooks, notebooks around will help. Check on this regularly and make sure that any special materials needed for class projects are provided so their work won’t be hampered.

3. Help Manage Time: Decide on a particular time in the day for homework and nothing can be replaced with homework time. We recommend not to push homework time close to bedtime as students are tired and easily distracted by that time. Ideally pick up a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting together with other classmates.

4. Be Positive: Attitude is contagious. The attitude you wear as a parent towards homework will initially move to your children. Make it a habit to tell your child that the homework they’re doing is important and good for them.

5. Do Your Homework Too: the best way to convince a child about the importance of homework is to show them how helpful it is for you as an adult. Help them to join the dots of classroom homework to various adult tasks you perform currently. If your child has homework to read an article you can make them feel comfortable by reading something yourself. Another example is, if your child is practicing math, you could balance your checkbook or note down expenses for the coming week.

6. Guide Don’t Tell: It’s important that when asked for help you give guidance not answers, that way your student learns the material and concepts on his own with initial guidance. At Shri. Harshad C. Valia International School (CBSE) we believe that a lot can be learned from self-learning or self struggle and also that too much help from your side can teach your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for them.

7. Cooperation from your end: Teachers will often recommend that as a parent you play a role in your child’s homework. Make sure you’re being an advocate for the teacher and follow their direction so you can show that school and home are a team.

8. Communicate with the teachers: You need to be on the same page as the teacher. Hence, make sure you talk to your child’s teacher and understand the purpose of homework and what the class rules are.

9. Dedicate Break Time: Watch your child for signs of failure and frustration. Let your child take a short break if they’re having trouble concentrating on the assignment. Build perseverance but set time limits to avoid burnout.

10. Reward Their Effort: Last but not the least, when your child has been successful and is working hard, celebrate success with a special event to reinforce the positive effort.

Summing up:
If you keep in mind the above tips while handling homework for your child you will not go wrong with the results. Often parents believe that Homework boosts achievement which is a myth explained in the blog The Myths That Undermine Educational Effectiveness.